Planar Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cells via Vapor-AssistedSolution ProcessQi Chen,†,‡,+ Huanping Zhou,*,†,‡,+ Ziruo Hong,† Song Luo,†,‡ Hsin-Sheng Duan,†,‡ Hsin-Hua Wang,†,‡

Yongsheng Liu,†,‡ Gang Li,†,‡ and Yang Yang*,†,‡

†Department of Materials Science and Engineering and ‡California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles,California 90095, United States

*S Supporting Information

ABSTRACT: Hybrid organic/inorganic perovskites (e.g.,CH3NH3PbI3) as light absorbers are promising players inthe field of third-generation photovoltaics. Here wedemonstrate a low-temperature vapor-assisted solutionprocess to construct polycrystalline perovskite thin filmswith full surface coverage, small surface roughness, andgrain size up to microscale. Solar cells based on the as-prepared films achieve high power conversion efficiency of12.1%, so far the highest efficiency based on CH3NH3PbI3with the planar heterojunction configuration. This methodprovides a simple approach to perovskite film preparationand paves the way for high reproducibility of films anddevices. The underlying kinetic and thermodynamicparameters regarding the perovskite film growth arediscussed as well.

Hybrid organic/inorganic perovskite materials (e.g.,CH3NH3PbI3) are currently among the most competitivecandidates for absorber materials for thin-film photovoltaic (PV)applications.1 Within the past 4 years, perovskite solar cells havebeen reported to achieve remarkably high efficiency of ∼15%.2The reason for this rapid increase in power conversion efficiency(PCE) of such devices is that perovskite materials possess mostof the properties required to be excellent absorbers: appropriatedirect bandgap, high absorption coefficient, excellent carriertransport, and apparent tolerance of defects.1b Besides theirextremely low cost and ease of fabrication, perovskite materialsoffer a wide tunability on composition and structure by adjustingthe metal halide framework and the intercalated organic species.Pioneering work suggested that these perovskite films exhibitcomposition-/structure-dependent properties, which can beaccessed by various processing approaches.3 It is essential toachieve fine control over the reaction between the inorganic andorganic species, resulting in perovskites with desired propertiesand device performance.Although first implemented in dye-sensitized solar cells based

on mesoporous structures,4 the perovskites have been graduallyfound to assume all of the principal roles of PV operation,5 andPV devices with planar architecture have been demonstrated.2b,6

Planar architecture potentially provides enhanced flexibility fordevice optimization, multijunction construction, and investiga-tion of the underlying device physics, but it requires tremendouseffort to fabricate high-quality perovskite films. Similar to otherthin-film PV technologies (e.g., α-Si, Cu(InGa)S2, and CdTe),

vacuum evaporation is one of the most promising techniques toconstruct perovskite thin films for planar junctions. The resultingperovskites prepared by co-evaporation of two precursors (PbCl2and CH3NH3I) exhibit satisfactory film coverage and uniformitywithin expectations.2b However, this technique demands highvacuum, which is too energy consuming and hinders massproduction. Alternatively, solution-based techniques have alsobeen proposed to fabricate thin films, in which a mixture of twoprecursors is used to form the completed absorber. Due to thelack of suitable solvents that can dissolve both components, andthe high reaction rate of the perovskite component, this processoften results in thin films with pinhole formation and incompletesurface coverage, which deteriorates the film quality and hampersthe device performance.6a As a variation to this method, a two-step approach was demonstrated to fabricate efficient PV devicesby dipping previously deposited inorganic precursor films intosolutions containing organic species.2a Unfortunately, thismethod has been largely successful in films with nanostructuredTiO2 scaffolds

2a but is seldom reported to be applicable forfabricating planar heterojunctions. Constructing a CH3NH3PbI3film with a thickness of several hundred nanometers requireslong reaction times due to the limited reaction interface area. Thetwo-step process also often results in films with strikinglyenhanced surface roughness that frequently peel off from thesubstrate.7 As such, there is an urge to develop a facile solutionapproach to perovskite materials with enhanced controllability ofthe film quality to construct planar structured devices withcompetitive performance.In this Communication, we demonstrate use of the vapor-

assisted solution process (VASP) to fabricate perovskite thinfilms and subsequently PV devices with planar geometry. Thekey step is film growth via in situ reaction of the as-deposited filmof PbI2 with CH3NH3I vapor (Scheme 1). This method isconceptually different from the current solution process andvacuum deposition, by avoiding co-deposition of organic and

Received: November 12, 2013

Scheme 1. Schematic Illustration of Perovskite FilmFormation through Vapor-Assisted Solution Process

Communication

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inorganic species. It takes advantage of the kinetic reactivity ofCH3NH3I and thermodynamic stability of perovskite during thein situ growth process and provides films with well-defined grainstructure with grain sizes up to microscale, full surface coverage,and small surface roughness, suitable for PV applications. Devicesbased on films prepared via VASP achieved a best PCE of 12.1%,so far the highest efficiency of CH3NH3PbI3 with planarstructure.VASP was developed to fabricate organic/inorganic hybrid

perovskite film (e.g., CH3NH3PbX3, X = Cl, Br, I), where theinorganic framework film is formed by depositing precursorsolution on the substrates and subsequently treated with thedesired organic vapor (Scheme 1). As an illustration, PbI2 andCH3NH3I are the corresponding precursor couple to formCH3NH3PbI3 in this work (see the Supporting Information (SI)for details). PbI2 films were deposited on fluorine-doped tinoxide (FTO) glass coated with a compact layer of TiO2 (c-TiO2),followed by annealing in CH3NH3I vapor at 150 °C in N2atmosphere for 2 h to form the perovskite films. Figure 1a showsthe corresponding X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the as-preparedCH3NH3PbI3 film on FTO/c-TiO2 substrate. A set of strongpeaks at 14.08°, 28.41°, 31.85°, and 43.19°, assigned to (110),(220), (310), and (330) of the CH3NH3PbI3 crystal,

4a,8 indicatean orthorhombic crystal structure of halide perovskite with highcrystallinity. According to the literature,2b there is often a tinysignature peak at 12.65°, corresponding to a low-level impurity ofPbI2. The absence of the aforementioned peak in the presentperovskite film suggests complete consumption of PbI2 viaVASP. The film quality of the perovskite is further evaluated byscanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic forcemicroscopy (AFM). As shown in Figure 1b, the as-formedperovskite film possesses the characteristics of full surfacecoverage on the substrates, with remarkable grain size up tomicroscale. The surface roughness of the film was measured byAFM (Figure 1c) and calculated to be 23.2 nm in the range of 5μm × 5 μm. The roughness of the film fabricated via VASP isrelatively small compared to other solution processed films,7

regardless of its microscale grain size. A typical cross-sectionalSEM image indicates the resulting film has a thickness of ∼350

nm, with well-defined grains across the film thickness. The 100%surface coverage, microscale grain size, and uniform grainstructure of the as-prepared film suggest its promisingapplicability for PV devices. These overwhelming characteristicscould be due to the combination of the relative smoothness of thepreformed PbI2 film, the effective intercalation of CH3NH3Ivapor into the inorganic framework, as will be discussed later.Film formation is crucial to fabricate planar heterojunctions in

most thin-film PV techniques; it is thus necessary to understandthe underlying kinetic and thermodynamic mechanism ofperovskite thin-film fabrication via VASP. Perovskite thin-filmevolution was investigated by annealing ∼200 nm thick PbI2films in the presence of CH3NH3I at 150 °C inN2 atmosphere fordifferent lengths of time. Four representative samples withdifferent annealing times were prepared: the initial stage (0 h,Figure 2b), intermediate stage (0.5 h, Figure 2c), complete stage(2 h, Figure 1b), and post stage (4 h, Figure 2d). (SEM images ofsamples of 1 and 3 h are included in Figure S2.) The XRD pattern(Figure 2a) clearly shows that, at the initial stage, the film iscomposed of PbI2 phase, while in the intermediate stage, bothphases, PbI2 and perovskite, coexist in the film as evidenced bythe appearance of their corresponding peaks. With timeevolution, the PbI2 phase disappears at the complete stage, andno new peak is observed at the post stage.The grain structure of the corresponding deposited film

changes strikingly along with the intercalation reaction as well.The initial PbI2 film exhibits uniform polygon grains of a fewhundred nanometers, as well as scattered voids among adjacentgrains. As the PbI2 film was exposed to CH3NH3I vapor for 30min, it exhibited two distinct shapes with different contrast. Thedark grains show morphology similar to those in Figure 2b,considered to be unreacted PbI2. The relatively light grainsappeared right on the top of the original PbI2 film with largergrain size and different grain morphology. As the coexistence oftwo phases in the film is confirmed by the XRD pattern, they arespeculated to be the newly formed perovskite. These species onthe top of PbI2 films significantly promote the film thickening, asshown in Figure S1b, probably due to volume expansion fromintercalation of CH3NH3I, accompanied by transformation of the

Figure 1. Perovskite film on the FTO/c-TiO2 substrate, obtained byreacting PbI2 film and CH3NH3I vapor at 150 °C for 2 h in N2atmosphere: (a) XRD pattern; (b) top-view SEM image (inset imagewith higher resolution, scale bar 1 μm); (c) tapping-mode AFM heightimages (5 × 5 μm) (inset: the corresponding 3D topographic image);and (d) cross-sectional SEM image.

Figure 2. Time evolution characterization of the perovskite thin film byannealing ∼200 nm PbI2 film in the presence of CH3NH3I at 150 °C inN2 atmosphere: (a) XRD patterns of the film annealed at 0, 0.5, and 4 h;(b−d) top-view SEM images of (b) the initial stage at 0 h, (c) theintermediate stage at 0.5 h (inset: wider view, scale bar 3 μm), and (d)the post stage at 4 h.

Journal of the American Chemical Society Communication

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PbI2 framework from the originally edge-sharing octahedralstructure to the corner-sharing octahedral structure in perovskitefilms.8a Note the appearance of some dots with sizes of tens ofnanometers on the surface of unreacted PbI2. It is highlysuspected that these tiny dots are reactive “nuclei” for the growthof grains, originating from the reaction between PbI2 andCH3NH3I vapor. With the presence of the newly formedperovskite crystals on top, along with the “nuclei” decoratedaround, we believe that the intercalation reaction takes place ontop of the PbI2 film in this stage. As the reaction time increases to2 h, perovskite films with grain size up to the microscale areobserved. Compared to the original PbI2 film, the perovskite filmdiffers in both morphology and size, where the film thickness ofperovskite increases to ∼350 nm from the original PbI2 film of∼200 nm (Figure S1a). The in-plane grain size of perovskite is 3times the film thickness, indicating that the growth of perovskitepolycrystalline films follows normal grain growth mode.9 Inaddition, the voids present in between the adjacent crystals in theoriginal PbI2 film vanished after the perovskite crystals formed.Interestingly, further prolonging the reaction time to 4 h does notaffect the grain structure (Figure 2d). There is no obviousripening, or coarsening process at post stage, which often appearsduring polycrystalline film growth,10 indicating that a thermo-dynamically stable film is formed after the reaction is complete atthe moderate temperature. Further prolonging the reaction timeis outside of the current research scope, though.The present VASP results in perovskite films with full surface

coverage, small surface roughness, and complete conversion ofPbI2, addressing most crucial issues regarding perovskite thin-film formation for PV applications. Remarkably different frompreviously reported solution processing approaches, the two-stepVASP exhibits its distinctiveness. In the first step, the inorganicprecursors are deposited to form a smooth and uniform PbI2 filmwith a surface roughness of

contribute to the high JSC. The large grains with reduced grainboundaries, and the uniform nature in the vertical direction overa range of length scale, may help to alleviate surfacerecombination when carriers are transported in the perovskitelayer, leading to high VOC. The improvement of FF is largelyattributed to the decrease of parasitic loss currents and theparallel resistance of the devices in this pinhole-free thin film.Note that the reported minority carrier diffusion length forCH3NH3PbI3 is quite short, ∼100 nm, resulting in relatively lowdevice efficiencies (normally